When I was a kid I would built the kit when I got it. After playing with it (e.g. as a car, house, helicopter or whatever) then I'd take it apart and build my o

When I was a kid I would built the kit when I got it. After playing with it (e.g. as a car, house, helicopter or whatever) then I'd take it apart and build my own things (houses, towns, spaceships etc). Sometimes they'd be static, or other times I'd try to use the pieces in a way they weren't intended, for example to create a sliding gate that a motorcycle could drive through (based on a tv show at the time) etc. Then once a year during our big December holiday I would sort all my Lego and then rebuild all the original kits and play with them again. I only ever lost 1 piece of Lego, a flat red 4x1 which I accidentally swallowed (which was funny because I really struggle with taking medications). Forever after my fire truck had a missing side piece.